In
a complete break from tradition, England embarked on their European tour of
1973 in a new lightweight aertex kit of
yellow shirts, blue shorts and
yellow socks.

Of the three opponents
that they wore yellow against on the tour, only Poland presented a colour clash with England’s normal white shirts.
For the other game of the four-match tour, in Moscow, England wore the
aertex white shirts
last seen against Brazil in the Mexico World Cup of 1970.

Both the full and
Under-23 teams were wearing aertex shirts during this period, but England have
never worn yellow shirts since. It was not a successful tour, with the result in
Poland proving to be particularly damaging to England's chances of qualifying
for the following year's World Cup in Germany. Perhaps, yellow was a step too
far for the traditionalists at the Football Association. Twelve months later, as
Umbro were about to be replaced as England's kit suppliers, they had reverted
back to a red aertex
change shirt.

The number ten
shirt above was worn by Allan Clarke against Italy and appears here by kind
permission of Nino and Angelo Spampinato of
www.maglieinrete.it.

Clarke was the
only player to score for England in the yellow aertex shirt, having also been
the only goal scorer in the
1970 blue aertex.
Coincidentally, on both occasions, the opponents were Czechoslovakia.